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Saturday, May 17, 2008

Speed Racer, Star Trek, and Pokemon

I just got home from Speed Racer.

Don't believe the anti-hype. It rocks.

As you're probably aware, Speed Racer was brought to the big screen by the Wachowski Brothers, the same guys who brought us The Matrix Trilogy. When the Matrix first came out in 1999, some of the more cynical geeks I hung out with went, "yeah, well The Matrix only impressed people who haven't seen enough anime."

With Speed Racer, the Wachowskis have truly made a live-action anime.

Everything is there, from the colour schemes to the editing to the very upbeat music...all the key elements of anime are there. In live action.

So trust me. If you were ever a member of your high school or college's anime club...if you ever rolled your eyes because a friend of yours saw a clip of Neon Genesis Evangelion and said "Is this Astro Boy?"...if you get the joke when I mention Sailor Jupiter's talent....

then you'll enjoy and appreciate Speed Racer.

I'll even go out on a limb and say I liked it more than Iron Man.

So go see it!So I guess this is year that I'm finishing getting all of Star Trek: The Next Generation on DVD.

I got seasons 1 and 2 six years ago when it was first released. Then I went to Japan, started saving my money to go to NAIT, and, well, life got in the way.

I always meant to finish the collection, but as any trekkie will tell you, it's tough. Whereas the average season set for a TV show runs $40-$50, Star Trek's season sets go for $80-$100. It really is gouging the fans.

So a few weeks ago, when I was seeing Iron Man, I was browsing in Best Buy and found season 3 marked down to $50. I figured, "What they hey?" and bought it.

And I must say, I was pleasantly surprised with season 3. When I watched seasons 1 and 2, I would roll my eyes at how many bad episodes were in those early years. But with season three, the ratio of good to bad was definitly on the side of good.

Anyway, today I was browsing in Future Shop. I found season 4 marked down to $60. Since I hadn't really touched my tax refund yet, I decided "What the hey?" and grabbed it off the shelf.

I went to the till. The clerk rang it up. But it didn't come up as $60. It came up as $40.

Me>> It's $20 cheaper? Nice!

Clerk>> Yeah, we just got a new shipment and we're trying to move them, so all our Star Trek is on sale right now.

Me>> I'm almost tempted to go back and get season 5....

Clerk>> I'm not sure if we have season 5.

Me>> You do have it. I saw it right on the shelf next to this. Give me a minute....

And I ran back and got season 5.

Two more and I can start on DS9. Hey! Pokemon 10 comes out in a week and a half. If Amazon.ca is to be believed, it's going to be the first one to boast the original Japanese language track.

And hey! As we all know, Pokemon games come in threes. There was the original Red/Blue/Yellow, leading to Gold/Silver/Crystal, and Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. We now know what's going to complete the trinity of Diamond/Pearl/__________.